Updated Horror RA Program for 2026 and my 2026 Appearance Schedule Page is Now Live

Believe it or not, but I am in full Spooky Season prep mode even though it is still July. Besides the Horror Genre Preview that went live earlier this month, I also have my annual update to my program-- Horror Readers Advisory: How to Help Your Scariest Patrons.

The first time I am giving this talk is for PCI for a national audience-- some live, some on demand. You can access the slides for yourself here or at the end of this post.

This presentation is updated every year around this time. It is THE standard for everything you need to know about Horror from appeal to themes, how to handle the Horror RA conversation, what titles you need to know about. And all of this is presented so that you can use the information to serve your patrons whether you are a hard core horror fan, a complete fraidy cat, or anything in between.

This means everyone reading this should be looking at these slides now, before you are slammed with more Horror readers. Remember, horror is hot right now and people always want to give it a try in October, even those who have never read it. These slides can help you help them and every level of Horror reader.

FYI, you can always find my upcoming and immediately past programs and RA training appearances on this page, always in the right gutter BELOW the RA for All logo. That page lists my fees, my most popular programs and their descriptions, links to slides, and a direct link to my book specific appearance page.

I have also set up the 2026 Fall WHY I LOVE HORROR appearance page, beginning with my visit to Gibson's Books in 2 days. Click here for that page. You can also find it in the right gutter ABOVE the RA for All Logo. There is already a lot there and I am confirming more every day.

And don't forget, I do a #HorrorForLibrraies giveaway every Thursday. And today, it is a big one-- up coming titles from Eric LaRocca and Alma Katsu; two titles for 1 winner! Click here for details on the titles and how to enter. Even if you aren't a huge horror fan, someone at your library is. These are ARCs so you cannot add them to your collections after staff read them, but you can use them for Horror themed giveaways of your own.

As August approaches (in 2 more days), I am here to help you be ready for Spooky Season. Those slides are filled with lists, links, and more. Get ready NOW. 

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: Booker Prize Longlist Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

The Booker Prize Longlist was recently announced. What is the Booker Prize? From their About Page:

The Booker Prize is the leading literary award in the English speaking world, and has brought recognition, reward and readership to outstanding fiction for over five decades

Each year, the prize is awarded to what is, in the opinion of the judges, the best sustained work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. It is a prize that transforms the winner’s career. 

Go to this page, helpfully titled, "Everything you need to know about the Booker Prize 2026 longlist." The page itself is a gold mine of a resource to help readers. It had details about every book, information about the judges. And on the prize's main page, there are even more articles about this year's longlist. I will link to some of the article below.

But even with the regular. display, backlist, and collection development advice I give for every award (access above), The Book Prize is an award you need to know about for a variety of reasons, reasons which give you even more options to serve your patrons.

First, these books are always among the top books written in English every year, which means this year and past year's lists make for reliable suggestions to your curious readers. The backlist is also very easy to access in two different ways. The first is a page here where you can use drop down menus to do so deep dive searching and/or scroll under those drop downs to see the announcements for each year in reverse chronological order. The second is a page here with a list of each year (reverse chronological order) of every title beginning with the winner and then listing all of the longlist titles and the titles are linked to get even more information about them.

Second, these titles (2026 or any year in the recent past) tend to be on the "readable side." What do I mean with that? What I mean is that they tend to pick excellent titles of high literary merit that are readable for a general adult audience. These are critically acclaimed, literary fiction titles that you can give out to a wide swath of readers with confidence. 

Third, the Booker Prize has a history of identifying authors worth you time early in their careers, sometimes earlier than they get singled out for other major awards. These are authors worth having on yourself and suggesting, but you (and your readers) may not have them on their radar yet. 

Fourth, this award list serves as a readalike for itself. Not all awards can do this, but I have used this award list as a suggestion engine for readers who have enjoyed any book that has appeared on the longlists. In fact, back in the early days of the 2000s, I offered a "Holds Without Hassle" program at my library, and not only did we allow them to pick authors for that list, but we also had a few awards they could select. This award (called the Man Booked back in the day) was one of the most popular choices. People wanted the winner put on automatic hold and then after reading it, we helped them find the other nominated titles. I have seen this work in action, even with the books being about widely different topics and from a range of authors.  

Fifth, and this is how my readers first found out about this award in the first place, these titles make excellent book discussion choices. There is a very helpful Booker Library, where you can find books by author, title, or even pick a prize year. And to make it even easier for you, they have Reading Guides designed specifically for libraries. Using the backlist from 2-5 years ago is a great resource for winning discussion titles.

And finally, the judges. I have talked about this before, but look at that list of judges from this year or past years. (Click on the post for each year on that page and scroll down to read about the judges.) Take this year for example. The judges themselves are excellent options for displays, suggestions, and purchase if you don't own their books. You can also use the judges list as one of my 5 Resources You Cannot Live Without-- Author Recs of Other Authors. A couple years ago year, I wrote about how that works in relation to the NYT Best Books of the Century discussion.

I am sure there are even more reasons why this award is a great resource for you to help your readers. Click through for all of the details and information and decide how you can best use this list for your library. The site is really a treasure trove of resources, suggestions, and lists all year long. 

I will end this post with  the most basic info-- the titles on the long list and the summary by the jurors about the list as a whole. All from this page:

The Booker Prize 2026 longlist has now been announced – a selection of 13 superb works of long-form fiction, chosen from 163 titles written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026.   

As Mary Beard, Chair of this year’s judges, says: ‘Great books have never been written to a single formula. We are confident that our longlist of books has something for everyone. There’s the funny and the unsettling (and in some cases the funny and unsettling); there’s dystopian fantasy and domestic drama; there’s the gritty and the magically mysterious; there are some that will please and some that may shock.’

The 13 nominated books, and their UK publishers, are:  

• The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis (Chatto & Windus) 

• Switzy by Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus) 

• Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions) 

• The End of Everything by M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail) 

• The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton) 

• Black Bag by Luke Kennard (John Murray) 

• The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (Hamish Hamilton) 

• May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta) 

• The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley (Picador)   

• The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking)  

• John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador) 

• All Them Dogs by Djamel White (John Murray) 

• The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams (4th Estate)

Bookstore Romance Day is Coming (8/15) and Libraries Need to Be Ready

Bookstore Romance Day is August 15th and Libraries not only need to be ready to help promote Romance over the next few weeks, but you should also be reaching out to your local bookstores (whether they are Romance specific or general because all bookstore have Romance) to see if you can help them out with promotion or even partner with them for events.

Click here for more information about Bookstore Romance Day.

They are hosting virtual panels and even have access to past panels. You should be sharing their links on your socials and websites from 8/1 through 8/15 for sure.

At the very least all of you need to be aware that the Bookstore Romance people are doing a big media blitz on and around this date, so that means, you should be brushing up on your Romance RA and putting up displays. People will be hearing about Romance more, even those who don't normally read it. If people walk into the library and see Romance on display, they will think you are reading their minds. And that is when we are really winning.

Libraries are not the only ones getting ready for Bookstore Romance  Day. In preparation for Bookstore Romance Day, PW had this article about how Romance Book Stores are surging across American right now. And Jessica Pryde, librarian and author of Black Love Matters, had this great Brief History of Black Romance in the 2020s in Book Riot.

Speaking of Book Riot, they always cover Romance-- all year long. You can go directly to that section of the site with this link. They do a great job of covering whatever the latest trend is and offer reading lists for you to have titles ready for your patrons ASAP.

And of course for all your general RA Romance needs, keep Smart Bitches, Trashy Books bookmarked and ready, especially their book finder. 

Finally, here is the direct link to the Reddit Romance Books landing page. Real readers talking about the books they love and suggesting more. This is particularly helpful when a trends seems to pop up out of nowhere. By the time you hear about it, I can assure you, the r/RomanceBooks people are already on the case.

Reminder, every single one of the resources I am suggesting are guaranteed to be 100% human created. Do not just google romance lists and think what you find is okay, even if made by a library. The worst thing you can do as a library worker here is offer up a list that AI made that includes titles that do not exist. 

Becky Live at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH This Friday!!!

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I am in NH for personal reasons and figured, hey Ryan, who does events for Gibson's is THE BEST, let's see if the two of us can work something out, and well, we did!

Come see me and John Langan, in conversation, on Friday, July 31st at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord New Hampshire at 6:30pm. I will be doing a signing as well. Click here for details and to register so they know you are coming, and so they have enough books on hand. John will sign his essay in the book too. From their site:

Join us for a celebration of Horror with two award-winning authors!

Librarian extraordinaire and champion of Horror, Becky Siegel Spratford, visits Gibson's to share her book of essays, Why I Love Horror, which just won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Short Non- Fiction. She will be joined in conversation by John Langan, who just won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection for his book, Lost in The Dark and Other Excursions.

A captivating anthology and heartfelt tribute to the horror genre featuring essays from several of the most celebrated contemporary horror writers including, Grady Hendrix, Paul Tremblay, Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, Victor LaValle, Tananarive Due, and Rachel Harrison.

For twenty-five years, Becky Siegel Spratford has worked as a librarianin Reader Advisory, training library workers all over the world on how to engage their patrons and readers, and to use her place as a horror expert and critic to get the word out to others; to bring even more readers into the horror fold.

Why I Love Horror is a love letter to the horror genre from many of the most influential and bestselling authors in the industry.

We are going to talk about horror in general, the book specifically, and our recent Stoker wins (which are connected. Ahh a tease to get you interested in joining us, yes I just did that).

I am excited to meet those of you who can make it. But I am also excited because this event marks the beginning of my 2026 book tour as well.

I will write up a post soon with all the details but I am appearing with Paul Tremblay in Springfield, MO in early September, Grady Hendrix in Danville, IL in late September and have multiple appearances in NYC and Brooklyn with a variety of authors at NYPL and Cass Khaw's book launch at Twisted Spine. Oh and a December appearance in Ann Arbor, MI. In between, I have a bunch of virtual and in person book club visits for Spooky season. And there are a few other podcasts and in person appearances still in the works or recorded and not yet dropped.

I will create a page for all of it for those of you who want to come out and see me. 

But right now, this Friday, July 31st, come out to Gibson's in Concord, NH. We already have a good crowd registered but we have room for more. I am driving an hour to be there, John even further. What is your excuse? We are only 1 hour from Boston folks. And it's a Friday night. Let's celebrate why we all love horror together, and support a great book store in the process.

The Story Report: The European State Of Reading

StoryTel Group recently released their 2026 Story Report. 

Who are the StoryTel Group? From their "About Us" page:

We are a storytelling company. Driven by our purpose – “Leading the future of storytelling, we move the world through stories” – Storytel Group inspires and entertains people around the world by blending innovation with tradition. We bring stories to life across various formats for everyone to discover. Anytime. Anywhere.

The Group consists of two business areas: Streaming and Publishing. Our streaming service is one of the leading subscription-based audio and e-book services, and offers listening and reading of more than 1.8 million titles in 55+ languages to nearly 2.7 million subscribers under the brands Storytel, Mofibo, and Audiobooks.com.Through our publishing operations, we bring high-quality stories from outstanding authors across a wide range of genres via prestigious publishers such as Bokfabriken, Gummerus, Lind & Co, Norstedts Publishing Group, People’s, Storyside and Overamstel. Storytel Group is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Their 2026 Story Report was commissioned by Storytel and conducted by Trackit Insight, a Stockholm-based independent research and insights agency specialising in human-driven consumer data. The survey was designed to explore the relationship between consumption of stories, audiobook habits and wellbeing across five European markets. Data were collected through online panel interviews in April 2026, with a total of 5,077 respondents across Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria — approximately 1,000 per market. Respondents were aged 18–79 years and samples were representative of each national population. Panel recruitment and data collection were carried out by Norstat in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Poland, and by JTN Research in Bulgaria.

From the introductory letter by the CEO:

The Quiet Power of the Story

Today’s world can feel overwhelming, with its constant stream of notifications, screens, and the persistent pressure to be productive. At Storytel Group, we have always believed that stories are more than just entertainment – they are a sanctuary.

This year, we conducted research to better understand the impact that stories have on our daily lives.

Our findings are clear: whether you are on a busy commute, doing household chores, or taking a quiet moment before sleep, stories offer a powerful way to restore your wellbeing. From finding peace during a long journey to using audiobooks as a screen-free way to spark a child’s imagination, the pattern is unmistakable: stories help us pause and recharge. Most importantly, our research shows that the more we read or listen – regardless format – the better we feel. Regular reading and listening are consistently linked to higher levels of personal wellbeing.

We don’t just read to escape our busy lives; we read to enrich our lives. This report confirms the meaningful impact of books in all formats as a daily habit.

Bodil Eriksson Torp

CEO Storytel Group

Click through to access the full PDF. It is a fascinating look at 5 European reading markets. 

Yes I know that a majority of my readers are in North America, but it is always good to cross reference reader data here and other places because we are all humans and a lot of the takeaways here are about how reading improves overall wellness.

I also thought this was be a great time to remind you of two recent reports about the state of reading and readers here in America, studies which I wrote about at the end of 2025. 

• 2025 YouGov poll on American Reading Habits
• 2026 Everabd 2026 State of Reading

Now you can add the Story Report to these other two. When you compare all three, notice the overlap because that is where some universal reading truths about reading at this moment in history are revealed.

Best Adaptations of the Century So Far

There are plenty of readalike lists for "The Odyssey," but this is just one example of an ongoing discussion we have at libraries all the time. And that discussion is about book to visual media adaptations. We talk about it in libraries all year long. We have requests for specific books when the movie or TV show comes out. We get the general question about good adaptations. 

You work in a library you know this is a common request. I even have a tag "books into movies" that you can use to see all the times I have written about this topic.

Of course, right now people are all over the Odyssey. But just a few months ago it was all about Hamnet.  Washington rinse, repeat because this cycle never ends. And quite frankly it is great for us at libraries, to have an evergreen topic that we can make displays about.

Back in 2024, I had this Conversation Starter to Display post about how to make a display of the best adaptations, including how to ask your patrons to contribute. 

Well I am bringing that post back into the conversation today because as part of their Best of the Century (So Far) coverage Book Riot didn't just look at the major genres, they also have a category for The Best Adaptations. From the intro to that list:

Book people tend to have big opinions about adaptations. There’s the camp that believes the book is always better, and those brave souls who’ll admit when the opposite is true. There are those who expect an adaptation to strictly adhere to the source material, and those who will quote Merriam-Webster to refute that idea outright. Some are down for the wild, creative, out-there interpretations as long as they’re entertained, and others can find something to appreciate if the project adheres to the spirit of the original text.

The task, then, of selecting the best adaptations of the century so far was a tricky one to start. What does “best” even mean when there’s so much variety in what we expect an adaptation to do? The answer, of course, is nuanced, and we think that’s a good thing. Adaptations can be beautiful interpretations of texts that remain pretty close to the original. They can also breathe new life into beloved works by switching up timelines and settings or making them more diverse (or diverse, period). An adaptation might turn a familiar story completely on its head, subverting tropes and trappings with fresh perspectives.  

 

From the fiercely faithful to the irreverent and anachronistic, we believe a good adaptation is largely in the eyes of the beholder. Behold then, dear reader, our picks for the best adaptations of the century so far.

Click through to see the list, check my 2024 post about how to build this display and include your patrons' voices and opinions, and see all of my posts about adaptations here. Use these resources that I have compiled in one place for you to jump on the current adaptation craze-- The Odyssey-- and offer your patrons more options to scratch their adaptations itch. 

And the best thing about this display is that it is evergreen. You can use it any time of year and people will appreciate it. It is not tied to a specific movie, but rather the long standing conversation about whether or not the book was better.

Using Awards Lists As a RA Tool: The Center For Fiction First Novel Prize Edition

This is part of my ongoing series on using Awards Lists as a RA tool. Click here for all posts in the series in reverse chronological order. Click here for the first post which outlines the details how to use awards lists as a RA tool.  

Yesterday, The Center for Fiction recently announced their longlist for the First Novel Prize. From that announcement: 

Announcing The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize Longlist

We are pleased to announce The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize Longlist. This year, we received over 180 submitted titles with U.S. publication dates between January 1 and December 31, 2026. More than 500 participants in The Center’s First Novel Prize Readership—including writers, librarians, booksellers, and other devoted readers—reviewed the submissions to help determine the 19 debut novels below.

Inaugurated in 2006, the First Novel Prize honors the best debut novel of the year and supports emerging voices in fiction. Each year, the winning author receives a $15,000 prize in recognition of their contribution to contemporary literature and in support of their ongoing creative career. Past winners of the Prize include Marisha Pessl, Junot Díaz, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tommy Orange, Raven Leilani, and De’Shawn Charles Winslow. In the fall, our judging panel of four distinguished authors will select the 2026 First Novel Prize Shortlist and winner.

We invite you to celebrate these exciting new voices in contemporary fiction at two marquee events this winter. The shortlisted authors will read from their work and gather with the public at The Center for Fiction First Novel Fête on Friday, December 4, 2026. The First Novel Prize winner will be announced at The Center’s Annual Awards Benefit on Tuesday, December 8, 2026. Click here for more information.

We are proud to share these extraordinary books with you. Please join us in congratulating The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize longlisted authors.

The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize is supported in part by Hawthornden Foundation. For support opportunities, please reach out to Melissa Wyse at development@centerforfiction.org.

This award speaks for itself. You need to go check right now if you own all 19 of these novels. You probably have a lot of these, but make sure. I love how long this long list truly is. They are identifying a huge list of excellent debut novels to make sure all who deserve to be noticed in the crowded publishing landscape get their moment to shine.  

In the Fall there will be a short list narrowed down by a panel of judges, and each of those authors will get $1,000, which is important to note. Only 1 person can win the $15,000 prize, but that $1,000 for the short list authors will go a long way toward keeping them on th path to write a second book.

Also, don't forget, the easily accessed archive of every longlist author and winners for the First Novel Prize is also a treasure trove of information. Obviously, you can find authors who are now bestsellers in that backlist, yes. But what about those authors whose first novel got a ton of critical acclaim but then did not make that jump to being more well known? Not making that jump does not make them less worthy of being read; in fact, that debut novel may be the hidden gem titles your patrons will love and it will lead them to read everything that author wrote after.

And, not for nothing, your part in helping them to find that author they ending up loving but never would have known about with your help, well, that will make your patron a life long library fan and supporter. There is no better feeling in our work than connecting a reader with a book that becomes a favorite for life, especially when we were the ones who matched them with said book or author.

Great debut novels are something many readers seek out already when looking for their next great read, but remember, they don't have to be the debuts of right now. An author's debut is forever their debut whether or not they have written other books.

The backlist is a treasure trove here. Debuts are a popular category, and The Center for Fiction has been prioritizing their wok on debut authors since 2006. Their track record in singling out titles and authors has more than stood the test of time as well. This longlist and their award archive is a no brainer resource, today and always.

And before I go, I need to shout out that they even have a straight up horror novel on the list this year --Carrying by Samantha Joseph! I called this one out in my recent Horror Genre Preview as well (and not even in my debut section because it is that good). 

Spend some time thinking about Debuts. The category itself makes a great late summer display and you have 10 years of The Center for Fiction longlist titles to help you fill those shelves. Let them do the work for you.